A Case Study of the Impact of University Establishment on Urbanization in Turkey's Medium-Sized City of Osmaniye

Abstract

The rapid increase in the urban population increases the space requirement of the cities and this situation causes the growth of them. As cities grow, problems such as agricultural lands, irregular settlements and destruction of natural areas arise. City managers respond to these problems with various political solutions and new technologies. Developments in computer technology are very important in analyzing the rapid changes in land use and ensuring sustainable and planned land use. In this study, the change in land cover/ use during the process of the establishment of Osmaniye Korkut Ata University in the province of Osmaniye is examined. This situation revealed that the most important dynamic that accelerates urbanization in the region is the university. The study area is Osmaniye city center and the land use change according to years in the university region (Fakıuşağı district) has been discussed. For this purpose, a pixel-based controlled classification technique was applied to satellite images of 1999 - 2009 - 2019. The city areas triggered by the university and the amount of changing land cover in the province of Osmaniye were revealed spatially and spatially with the help of satellite images of each year. It was observed that the settlement class in both Osmaniye and Fakıuşağı districts has increased considerably. While the settlement class in Osmaniye province increased 2.5 times from 1999 to 2019, the increase in Fakıuşağı district increased approximately 10 times from 1999 to 2019. It has been observed that the establishment of the university, apart from the natural population increase, increased the migration to the city and led to the opening of new zoning areas in the determined 20-year period. In this process, it has been concluded that while settlements have expanded, agricultural lands have decreased, and pastures and forests have been destructed in recent years.